By JILLIAN JORGENSEN GOFFSTOWN
- A new mixed-use
development is moving along on schedule in Pinardville ,
and getting some attention statewide, according to a
presentation the by engineering firm behind the project.

Robert Cruess, president of TF Moran, gave the planning
board in Goffstown an update on the status of the
development, on Mast Road near Joffre Street, and
presented some slight changes to the plans for townhouses
on the site.

There is already a new Rite-Aid and a park, Abingdon Park,
on the land. The site plan also calls for 25 units of
townhouse housing, and for additional retail or office
buildings, combining low-cost, or “workforce,”
housing, retail, business, green and recreational space.

The New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority, which
competitively scores housing projects, gave it the top
rating of 15 projects, Cruess said.

He said the park, while not totally complete, is already
attracting attention, and members of the Bedford Town
Council will tour it next month to get ideas of what kind
of difference a park can make in town centers, Cruess
said.

“When we started 2-and-a-half years ago, there were
actually people in the audience who said, ‘Why are you
bothering to put in a park here? You’re wasting your
time,’” Cruess told the board.

The changes presented to the board included making the
townhouse buildings smaller, and removing garages. Some
members of the board raised concern about the lack of
adequate storage space, but Jennifer Vadney, development
director for NeighborWorks Greater Manchester, the company
that will build the homes, said tenants of townhouses do
not need the space.

All maintenance will be taken care of for the tenants, she
said, so there is no need to store things like snow
blowers or shovels.

“Tenants prefer to have that unfurnished storage space
in the basement,” she said.

The board agreed with Cruess that the changes to the plan
were not “material changes.”

After the meeting, Cruess said mixed-use projects are
becoming increasing popualar for their convenience and
their environmental value.

“The nearer you are to a retail node, the less you have
to drive,” he said. “You save some CO2, and some
gas.”

If offices can be included in the development, or if
people who live there work in retail, the benefit is even
greater.

“Environmentally, it’s good because you can get people
to work closer to where they live,” said Ann Cruess, the
landscape architect who designed Abingdon Park.

With an increased interest in mixed-use developments, and
tax credits for “workforce” housing, the project has
moved even faster than expected, Robert Cruess said.

The real material changes may come, he said, in the retail
part of the plan. The original plan calls for three retail
buildings in the middle of the development, but it could
be two, or could feature office space instead, he said.

“We’re talking to people” about those opportunities,
he said. “It’s certainly not final, but we’re
talking to people.”